In many industrial and commercial businesses, cleaning and maintenance of the surfaces, in particular floors, is an ongoing endeavor. Grocery stores, food production facilities, commercial kitchens, commercial laundry facilities, hotels, restaurants, office buildings, and public restrooms are examples of facilities where the upkeep of the floor is a continuing occupation. The presence of spills, dirt, or other floor conditions can affect the safety of persons in the area, contribute to an unsightly environment, and/or increase wear and tear on the floor itself.
Recently there has been development of robotic floor monitoring devices that monitor the condition of floors. The floor monitoring device may traverse a route around an environment and collect data concerning the condition of the floor. The device may communicate the floor condition data to a base station, a local computer, or other computing device. In some examples, the floor monitoring device may analyze the floor condition data and identify any notable floor conditions within the monitored environment. In other examples, the base station may analyze the floor condition data and identify and/or address notable floor conditions within the monitored environment. An example of such a device is provided in (Ser. No. 13/828,719) directed at robotic systems and methods for monitoring floor conditions, which is fully incorporated herein as it is set forth in its entirety.
Traditional floor coatings contain high solid content, including at least 16% solid content. Some high solid content coatings can even be as great as 60% solid content. High solid coatings are applied by mopping or a similar type of method of application. Mopping and similar methods of application are not suitable for some robotic coating devices and not ideal for other robotic coating devices. A preferred method of applying a floor coating with a robotic coating device is by spray application. However, high solid content coatings are not suitable for spray application as they are difficult to spray, there is the possibility of agglomeration and clogging in the spray apparatus, and the increased viscosity does not allow adequate dispersion and coating on the floor. There is a need for floor coatings that do not retain tread marks, particularly from application of a robotic device, or black heal marks.
Accordingly, it is an objective of the claimed invention to develop low solids surface coatings.
A further object of the invention is to provide a low solids surface coating that has low viscosity and can be applied by a spray mechanism.
A further object of the invention is to provide a low solids floor coating that can be applied by robotic floor coating devices.
Other objects, advantages and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following specification taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.